An Alternate Path
by SaiyuriSatomi
Summary: Desmond enters the Animus and encounters memories he never expected. Ezio is sent on a mission and encounters a beauty even Venus would envy, but is she want she seems? This journey leads Ezio and Desmond both, down a dangerous path...


Desmond woke, looking at his clock he sighed; the Animus was messing with his sleep patterns. He laid there a moment, thinking of everything his ancestors had done, and what he himself was doing. Not long ago, he was just a bar tender, completely irrelevant in the world of man. Now he was the descendant of a long line of very successful assassins. He felt his throat tighten as he remembered how he had felt, as Ezio, when he witnessed the murder of his family. The pure agony, of seeing them hang, not even his child brother had been spared. The pain Ezio had felt, so great it was almost blinding. The regret, the guilt, he knew Ezio would have been right there beside them, had he been more responsible. He knew Ezio would forever blame himself, for trusting the man who betrayed his family, and for not being strong enough to protect them. His older brother, who he so admired…his father who he loved, but had so foolishly taken for granted…and his little brother… what could that boy have done to deserve such a death?

Desmond found it impossible to sleep, and he turned, his brows furrowed as he heard faint clicking of keys on a keyboard, typing furiously away. He sat up and slipped into a pair of pants and a shirt, and moved out into the main room, down the hall and to the left. As he rounded the corner he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he looked like shit, his hair was disheveled, and he had dark circles under his eyes. As he looked up he saw a girl named Hero, he at first thought it was an odd name, but he got used to it. She looked up at him and flashed a smiled, than she looked back down as she took a sip of water, moving today's finds in the animus, to the laptop. Her fingers danced upon the keys quickly, and continued at their fast pace, even when she looked up and greeted him.

He sat on a stool as he often did at night, though no words were exchanged, they both seemed to have a conversation in body language and expression. It was as if she could look into him and see his emotion, and without a word, make him feel at ease. He woke the next morning on the stool, balanced with his arms for a pillow, against the desk, her head not far from his, she had also fell asleep at the keyboard. He looked at her, she was a beautiful woman. With thick dark curly hair, streaked with natural reds and blondes, her long black lashes swept over her eyes gracefully, and he gazed down her face, her full lips, red even with no makeup applied. She was never anything but patient and kind to everyone, even when Shawn would be a dick; she was nothing other than smiles and laughter. She was, however, one of the most complex people he had ever known.

She held such sadness behind her brown eyes, and it was something he was not sure he would ever get too. He gently reached out and removed her glasses, and looked through them. Glass…but not prescription, they were just glass, like looking out of a window. He looked down at her, curious. He placed them by her head as she stirred and sat up yawning. He laughed heartily when she looked at him, the keyboards outline had been mashed against her skin and now there was a print. She stood up and looked in the mirror and laughed right along with him and suggested she get it tattooed before the day was out, a joke of course. She moved to her room to change, leaving him with the computers. He hopped in her seat, and began to read what she was typing. A file on Ezio, it however, was not a typical file, listing things as birth date, eye color, height, it was more personal. She was writing from her point of view, at the man Ezio was, and had become.

He looked out into the hallway as the shower turned on and he scanned over to his own file. Hoping to get an inkling of what she thought of him, but it was to no avail, the file had not been written yet. Perhaps she only kept files on past assassins. He saw Altair and wrote of him almost adoringly. He had almost forgotten the man in all the time he had spent as Ezio. She wrote of his wife, after the brotherhood and his many children. She had been so detailed in her research; it even showed the morals he had instilled in his children. He had trained them as he had been, but also to trust in each other. He read on and on until he heard her coming. He leaned back and closed out the tab and looked at the doorway. She walked up to him and shut her laptop.

"Don't you know snooping around a woman's things can be lethal?" She smiled at him and he nodded and stood up. She looked back at him as he followed.

"I will have to keep that in mind." He said as they both leaned back into the chairs. Lucy and Heather hooked them both up and soon he drifted away into the world of the animus.


End file.
